


and sometimes it's a sad song

by sparklylulz (sparklyulz)



Category: Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Genre: Caroline being kind of nice, Darcy pining, Multi, dumb parallels, overuse of Maroon 5 lyrics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-10
Updated: 2013-02-10
Packaged: 2017-11-28 20:57:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/678811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sparklyulz/pseuds/sparklylulz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Bing Lee has an obsession with Maroon 5 and Darcy sets out to fix his mistakes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and sometimes it's a sad song

**Author's Note:**

  * For [strikingsparks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/strikingsparks/gifts).



> as with all my LBD fic, this is for Sara. We have this great headcanon of drunk Bing Lee and his obsession with Maroon 5’s first album. This just... sort of happened. It ended up being a lot more serious than I intended.
> 
> Title from Maroon 5’s “The Sun"

Darcy doesn’t realize how bad the Bing and Jane breakup idea was until he starts hearing Maroon 5’s “ _Songs About Jane_ ” blaring from Bing’s room one weekend when he comes down to stay in San Francisco.  
  
Of course, the Darcy Estate is such a large house that guests usually can’t be heard even when they try, and Bing wasn’t the loudest guy to begin with.  
  
Without Gigi there, most of year feels pretty drafty and bleak. So when the call came from the Lees asking if they could stay, he jumped at the opportunity.  
  
It certainly had _nothing_ to do with Lizzie Bennet crushing his heart effortlessly and then letting the entire Internet in on it. No, he just missed his friends. Darcy tells Bing over the phone that he’s welcome to stay as long as he wants, but even as he lets the words out, he’s already forming a plan.  
  
Unfortunately, Bing shows up with Caroline in tow, and she’s complementing the house and asking to see Gigi, and Darcy thinks he might need to break out the wine before 11 a.m., but is luckily saved by a call from Mrs. Reynolds.  
  
“Mr. Darcy, I just wanted to let you know that we’ll be hosting a graduate student for a few weeks. She starts on Thursday.”  
  
Darcy’s heart clenches, of course there are countless graduate students in California, but he just knows who this one is.  
  
“Her name is Elizabeth Bennet, and she comes highly recommended from Dr. Gardiner. And you have a meeting today at 3.”  
  
“Yes, thank you, Mrs. Reynolds. Make sure Liz- uh, Elizabeth, gets one of the offices on my floor so that she can easily be kept in the loop with our video design team.”  
  
If Mrs. Reynolds hears his slip up, she doesn’t mention it. He confirms his meeting with one of the more dreaded partners at his company, and by the time he gets off the phone the Lees have dispersed into their respective rooms.  
  
Darcy goes down the hall to make sure Bing doesn’t need anything else, and as he raises his knuckles to tap on the door to his friend’s suite, he hears Bing’s voice mingled in with the stereo.  
  
 _“I know where you hide alone in your car, know all of the things that make you who you are. I know that goodbye means nothing at all. Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls.”_  
  
Bing, much to Darcy’s dismay, is actually a talented singer, which was always a sore subject on karaoke nights. However, it didn’t really sound like Bing was going for pitch perfection, mostly he just sounded sad.  
  
“Yeah. Welcome to my world.” Caroline appears at his elbow, one of her thin hands wrapped over his shoulder.  
  
Tactfully, Darcy disentangles himself from her, “What do you mean?”  
  
“He’s been blaring this stupid album ever since we left Netherfield. I don’t even like Maroon 5 and I know all the lyrics.” She says, slightly less bitchy than usual. Underneath it all, Caroline does love her brother, and she’s clearly worried about him.  
  
She turns with a sigh to get away from the sad singing, not even bothering to tell her host goodbye.  
  
Darcy thinks back to Lizzie’s rejection and all the things she said that he didn’t particularly _ever_ want to relive.  
  
“You took the heart of my sister, the kindest soul on the planet, and tore it in half.”  
  
Naturally, he hadn’t seen it that way. At the time he had been sure of his decision to separate Bing from Jane, and Bing went so easily, he thought it was a good break up. Now that he stood with nothing more than a door between them, he could hear clearly just how much Bing was _not_ over her. He could only imagine how _Jane_ must have felt.  
  
Not for the first time since his disaster with Lizzie, William Darcy feels guilt.  
  
He walks back away from the room, still thinking of Lizzie and then of Jane. Bing’s voice echoes in his ears.  
  
 _“And she will be loved.”_

 

_-_

Lizzie Bennet comes to stay at Pemberley and Darcy finds himself peering around corners and avoiding the end of the hall that holds her office. It’s stupid, he knows. They’re both adults who can work together without it being awkward. But then he catches sight of her auburn hair and he forgets that he’s just a guy she would like to set on fire, and he falls in love with her all over again.  
  
She and Gigi get along so well it kind of scares him, because Gigi’s always been such a big part of who he is, and she’s the one thing that Lizzie can tolerate about him. He pretends not to notice Gigi’s sad eyes when he and Lizzie avoid eye contact in elevators or meetings or breakrooms. He understood very well that Lizzie had closed that door for a reason, and he had disrespected her enough in the past, he just couldn’t do it anymore.  
  
So when she declines an invite out to karaoke with Bing, Gigi, Fitz, Darcy, and Caroline, he tries to not take it personally. Surely she has plenty of reasons to avoid Bing and Caroline as well.  
  
It ends up being a good idea for Lizzie to not be there when Bing gets progressively more drunk and stumbles up to the stage to start singing, (still irritatingly well), Maroon 5.  
  
 _“Can you see me, floating above your head as you lay in bed, thinking about everything that you did not do, ‘cause saying ‘I love you’ has nothing to do with meaning it.”_  
  
Caroline, in a very unladylike moment, curses under her breath and flags down their waiter for another martini, while Gigi stares at her brother wide-eyed and Fitz can’t stop laughing.  
  
 _“And I don't trust you, ‘cause every time you're here, your intentions are unclear. I spend every hour waiting for a phone call that I know will never come. I used to think you were the one, now I'm sick of thinking anything at all.”_  
  
Darcy wishes Bing would just punch him the face because that’s kind of what he deserves. He realizes what a shitty friend he’s been as Bing moves into the chorus, getting redder and redder by the second.  
  
 _“You ain't ever coming back to me, that's not how things were supposed to be. You take my hand just to give it back; no other lover has ever done that. Do you remember the way we used to melt? Do you remember how it felt when I touched you? Oh ‘cause I remember very well._ ”  
  
Bing might be crying on the stage, and all Darcy can think of are the videos he marathoned one terrible night with too much scotch. He remembers how Jane and Bing looked at each other, like nothing else was worth looking at, and it dawns embarrassingly slowly on him that he looks at Lizzie the exact same way.  
  
 _“Heartache, heartache I just have so much; a simple love with a complex touch. There is nothing you can say or do, I called to let you know I'm through with you.”_  
  
Bing disembarks the stage without much grace and Darcy catches him before he can fall flat on his face.  
  
“I miss her so much, man. So, so much.” He says sadly as they weave their way back to the bar.  
  
“I know. I know.” Darcy says back uncomfortably, trying to figure out how to fix this.

-

George Wickham deserves nothing more than being hit a few times in the face with something heavy, mostly for what he did to Gigi and now to Lizzie’s own sister. Lydia might be too loud and just overall too much but that doesn’t mean Darcy would ever wish upon her what she got.  
  
The website is disgustingly over-the-top, just like the creator. Plus Lizzie leaving throws a monkey wrench in the whole Operation: Woo Lizzie Bennet thing he’d been planning.  
  
He watches her videos from his office at Pemberley and despairs with her, and if he puts on “ _Songs About Jane_ ” during his workouts, he pointedly ignores the Bing and Jane parallel.  
  
Fitz, ever the unpredictable best friend, pulls through with a phone number and address to a crappy walk up apartment at the edge of L.A. and Darcy leaves on a red-eye flight and touches down about 6 a.m. Unfortunately for Wickham, Darcy has a pretty terrible cup of coffee and hasn’t slept in two days when he opens the door to his apartment.  
  
“Darcy? What the hell-” But he never gets to finish his sentence, because there’s suddenly a fist against his jaw.  
  
“I’m going to give you one chance to hand over that video and get rid of your website.” Darcy says calmly as George clutches his jaw in pain.  
  
“No way, I’ve got over 3,000 subscribers already!” George manages to smirk through his bleeding lip, “Why do you even care, Darce? Oh let me guess, you’re planning on winning Lizzie back? I can’t blame you, her lips are pretty phenomenal-”  
  
Picking Wickham up and slamming him against a wall isn’t easy, but Darcy ignores the pain in his shoulders and tightens his hold.  
  
“I will give you fifteen grand for all of it and for you to disappear completely. I never want to see your face again. If you post that video, I will have every lawyer and private investigator in the country waiting for you to make one mistake, Wickham.”  
  
For a few seconds George seems to be weighing his options and then he nods and Darcy drops him mercilessly.  
  
“Good to see you haven’t changed.” Darcy writes a check and leaves it on the messy coffee table.  
  
He grabs the computer off the couch and promises to return it when he’s satisfied that it’s wiped clean and if any other copies of the video are leaked, George may not have fingers left. Darcy walks out the apartment and pulls out his cellphone.  
  
“Bing, pack your bags, we’re going to Netherfield. And _don’t_ tell Caroline.”

-

  
They arrive on a Friday, but it takes Bing two days to pluck up the courage to drive to the Bennet’s house. Darcy hasn’t heard from Lizzie since she left, but she must have seen that the website was taken down. He thinks about calling Gigi, but he’d rather not have to talk about all of this yet.  
  
Instead he pulls Bing out of bed at 9 a.m. on Sunday and forces him into clothes and pushes a set of keys into his hand.  
  
“She loves you, Bing. Trust me.” He says simply, but he remembers telling Bing on the flight over that he was the reason for his break-up and sudden interest in Maroon 5.  
  
He didn’t get punched in the face, but he did get ignored for two days straight before he had enough.  
  
Bing just sort of nods and climbs into the car.  
  
When he gets home that night, Darcy hears him in the shower, a much happier sound than Bing usually puts on.  
  
 _“That may be all I need, in darkness she is all I see. Come and rest your bones with me; driving slow on Sunday morning, and I never want to leave.”_  
  
He only stops listening when the doorbell sounds, and he wonders if maybe Jane had decided she couldn’t spend eight hours away from her newly reunited love.  
  
Instead, when he pulls the large door open, he sees Lizzie. She’s wearing a blue sundress and fiddling with her hands.  
  
“Lizzie, what-”  
  
His words are cut off with her lips as they collide into his, and he catches her effortlessly against him. His fingers lace their way into her hair as she clutches his face and moves in sync with him.  
  
In his mind he replays the lyrics Bing had ingrained in his brain so long ago, _“Look for the girl with the broken smile, ask her if she wants to stay awhile. And she will be loved.”_


End file.
